Credits

Monday, 16 November 2009

Linda S. Clare is a multi published non-fiction author who has turned her hand to fiction with her debut novel, The Fence My Father Built. With an intriguing and personal premise, why not check out this book when you are out and about!

Over to you, Linda:~

Brief physical description

Muri Pond is a quarter Native American. She's slender, with long dark hair and a slightly tan complexion, but green eyes. The cover art is a good, approximation of Muri, but in my head it's always been Sandra Bullock.

Strengths

Educated, loves to read, compassionate, open-minded, a spiritual seeker with a strong sense of needing to find her place in the world.

WeaknessesShe has a little temper when it comes to her teen daughter Nova. She resists organized religion (at first) and is rather cynical about relationships, because she's going through a divorce.

Quirk (if any)

Muri isn't really quirky but many of her “new” relatives are, including her now deceased father, who built a fence from old oven doors.

Your inspiration for the character

Sshh--don't tell but in my head she looks similar to one of my neighbours. The neighbour doesn't know it. My real-life Aunt Shirlee retired as head district librarian in Tempe, Arizona schools, so she's the reason Muri's a librarian. And I searched for my own part-Native American bio dad until I we met a few years ago. He's still living, though.

Background to the story

Muri Pond has always longed to know her biological father, who left when she was a small child. Years later, she's still reeling from learning that it's too late: Her father, a half-Nez Perce Indian named Joseph Pond, has died, leaving her an inheritance of property in Central Oregon. As Muri and her two children, Nova, 16, and Truman, 11, make their way from Portland out to the tiny town of Murkee, Muri has lost a lot: her librarian job, her marriage and her faith in God. When she arrives at her newly-inherited property, she's shocked: it's little more than a ramshackle trailer, surrounded by a fence made from old oven doors.

As she tries to make the best of things, she grapples with Joe's charismatic sister Aunt Lutie, her husband, Tiny, who keeps potbellied pigs and mountains of bicycle parts for needy kids and Linc Jackson, a conniving neighbor who threatens to sue over water rights. Muri struggles to accept her father as he was and in doing so rediscovers the faith he somehow never abandoned.

Thanks for sharing, Linda. I love that your story was inspired by your own search for your father.

On Thursday, the spotlight shines on Christina Berry's Craig and Denise Littleton from her debut novel, The Familiar Stranger ~ you won't want to miss this one :)